Who would have thought I would be excited by the weather?

The forecast for today was predicting some rain but nice warm temperatures.  The weather station indicated that we might reach record high temperatures.  Oh how exciting. I didn't expect much with respect to a sunrise as the forecast was for cloudy skies all day. When I woke up this morning and looked out of the window I was amazed at how much fog there was. I guess it makes sense that when the temperature above the ocean is warm, it will cause the fog to form.  

On the beach I could hear the gulls making their noises but I couldn't see them. Thats how thick the fog was.  By 7:00 a.m. I decided to head out and see what it looked like outside. It seemed that the fog might be lifting somewhat so I was curious to see how it would be captured with my camera.

By the time I came inside, Ralph was awake and ready to join me for a coffee.  We decided it would be nice to head out to the Pier so I could take some pictures and he would take his walk.  It was still quite foggy when we got there which I was pretty excited about.  Ralph left me by the Pier and I spent the next hour delighting in my hobby and also doing a little shelling as well.  I found another Sea Urchin which I can't wait to see as it is quite large.  It now out on my balcony drying so that the spines will fall off and the flies can eat the meat inside.  

Before lunch, I went out for a walk along the beach.  While I was out, Ralph spotted some dolphins in the water.;  He got a great shot of one of them.

After lunch, we decided to go to Huntington Beach for a while to photograph the birds and also hoped see a sunset.  While we were there, the weather changed significantly and we could tell that rain was on its way.  We were still able to spend some time enjoying the birds before heading to the condo for a relaxing evening.

As the time goes by

It's been a week since I updated my blog.  My it's been busy.  Last Thursday, early in the morning I slipped off the stair down by the beach and sprained my ankle.  As a result,  I was off my feet for 2 days icing it every couple of hours.  The swelling was pretty significant but the ice helped.  Ralph bought me a special brace to support my ankle to help with walking.

Since I wasn't able to be as active, it gave me an opportunity to work on some of my sunrise and beach photo's.  We have been so blessed with amazing skies.

We've played golf a fair bit these past couple of days with rounds being completed on Saturday, Monday and Tuesday.  We have a tournament today.  After this I need to take a few days to rest my ankle as it was pretty swollen again when I woke up this morning.  With the weather being so nice, the alligators have started coming out to warm themselves as well.  We saw many of them at the Witch while playing there. We also saw quite a few turkeys.  Their colouring is beautiful.  Much prettier than the ones we have at home.

We enjoyed a really nice visit with Liz on Sunday.  We shared a potluck dinner at the Simonse's condo all together.  What a lovely evening we had.  As we were there, John noticed how red the moon was as it was coming up.  I raced back to our condo to try to capture it, but it came up so fast, it was a bit of a challenge.  I was better prepared on Monday but it wasn't half as beautiful as it was on Sunday evening.  I'm glad that we were able to see it all together that evening.  

The weather has been really nice this year with the temperatures averaging in the mid 60's to low 70's.  These are perfect days for walking and enjoying being outside. Today is starting off nice with a beautiful sunrise.  We're having a fantastic time.

What a day for a daydream

With the help of the alarm I was up early this morning.  I didn't want to have a repeat of yesterday and wanted to be up, dressed and enjoying a coffee before heading down to the beach.  Well I was up and dressed, and pouring my coffee when I saw that the sky was becoming a majestic red colour.  Oh my, it's getting earlier and earlier each day.  With coffee in hand (thank goodness for plastic Starbucks cups) and my tripod and camera in the other I raced out to capture the sun.  Initially I had planned to stay behind the grasses and fence and play around with capturing the pictures there, but the sunrise was just too pretty not to focus on that first.  I think I was one of the first out on the beach but it wasn't long before others came out as well to enjoy the beautiful morning.  I met up with John and Grace as they set out for their morning walk.  It was a perfect temperature for exercise.  We chatted for a while before they headed off and I continued taking pictures.  I was very pleased with todays results.

Afterwards I went back to our condo where Ralph spoiled me with a lovely breakfast.  He certainly takes care of me.  I am truly blessed to have him as my husband.  We enjoyed a relaxing coffee and then headed to Huntington Beach as the low tide was in the morning which is the best time to see the birds.  While at Huntington Beach I talked to a few fellow photographers and learned that there are "Blue Birds" in the park and that across the street at Brookgreen Gardens there are several Owls which apparently are easily spotted.  I'm hoping that we can check out both while we are here this month.

We were blessed to see the Eagle who flew directly overhead of us.  What a thrill that is.  Otherwise, it was relatively quiet.  We went for a walk to the other pond and saw a few alligators (small ones) and a baby Night Shade Heron.  That was pretty interesting and exciting to see.

Overall we had a great day.  We topped it off with having lunch at our favourite "Grilled Cheese" restaurant.  I think I'm going to have to double up my walking for the next couple of days to remove these excess calories but oh was it worth it!!

Sunny days of February

The morning came with a beautiful sunrise as well as warm temperatures.  I was up very early but decided to go back to bed for a while.  When I awoke at 6:30 I was shocked at how much colour was already in the sky.  I quickly got dressed and headed down to the beach.  The sky was very pretty with wispy clouds.  I just love it when this happens as it adds so much more to the sunrise.

What a beautiful day we had.  Our tee time was just after 10:00 and by the 2nd hole we had taken off our jackets (yes even Teresa did) and we enjoyed the warmth of the day.  As well we were blessed with the most amazing skies with their clouds.  It was like looking at a piece of art up in the sky.  

What a wonderful surprise when this Barred Owl flew by.  I was able to keep it in my sight enough to get a picture of it.  Sadly I didn't have a zoom lens on my camera so this is cropped in from a big distance away.  We were just thrilled to see this.  We also enjoyed seeing an Eagle fly overhead.